Tag Archive: wall art

Posted 11.02.2012

Posted 11.02.2012

Last week, we finished redesigning our offices at work. The main wall in the elevator lobby, we painted with chalkboard paint. Heavily inspired by Dana Tanamachi’s chalk work, I drew out a design centered around the phrase “Proceed and Be Bold.” — This phrase is actually posted around Facebook’s offices. We wanted to encourage the same type of bold mentality on our floor.

First, I drew it out on tracing paper, layering up. This allowed me to go back and redo a section if I didn’t like it without messing up an area I had already finalized.

Then, I scanned each section into the computer and assembled the artwork in Photoshop.

Lastly, we cheated a little bit. We used a projector to get the art on the wall and then went to town tracing.

This office, not part of the executive suite, is meant to make him more accessible, providing a comfortable atmosphere for all day meetings. (I know, I just put “comfortable” and “all day meetings” in the same sentence.)

When Lydia and I were doing visual research, I stumbled upon this image.

I knew I wanted to do something similar in this space. I started trying to come up with phrases, I wanted to use biblical phrases (this is after all a Christian company), but not cliche. I also knew that some of our compapny’s most important decisions would (potentially) be made in this room. Therefore, I wanted “Be Strong and Courageous” to be the most prominent element.

Originally, I took the art to Kinkos to be printed on their 3′ wide draft paper. However, my piece had too much black and the printer started streaking. Unacceptable. I tried inverting the artwork, which definitely had an Esquire feel.

It works but, it wasn’t best.

In the end, we printed the banners in house on a thicker paper. The end result was much more along the lines of what we were looking for.